Identify Your Audience

Creating brand awareness and acquiring customers for a new store can be a daunting task. That's why we encourage you combine organic approaches with paid advertising. Since we're covering the faster advertising route, you can read more about organic tactics in our ebook, 103 Ways to Sell a New Product.

There are several key components to running a successful ad campaign, so don't feel discouraged if you don't hit it out of the park the first time. In fact, the first step happens even before you put together an ad, and it's called research. Researching helps you learn more about your audience, know how to find them, and understand how to talk to them.

Audience

As much as you'd like your merchandise to be in the hands of everybody, the reality is that there are certain groups more likely to purchase than others—the latter group is the one you want.

Keep this in mind as you create ads and use filters to prevent your ads from appearing in front of unlikely purchasers. For example, here's a filter to narrow down the "mom" demographic.

Moms with newborns

Moms interested in soccer

Moms living in Australia

Moms under the age of 30

When your examples become much more specific, your focus becomes a niche. For small businesses, targeting niche audiences is a more effective return on investment (ROI) than targeting a general audience. Try getting more granular by combining 2 2 or more interests, passions, or identities. These are just a few parameters you can consider:

Age

Gender

Location

Hobbies

Job

Additionally, ride the coattails of trends when you can to make your merchandise more relevant. Here are a few timely categories to keep an eye on:

Holidays (Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.)

Seasons (Fall, Spring, Winter, Summer)

Major events (Olympics, political elections, concerts, etc.)

Popular culture (quotes, dances, celebrities, etc.)

Once you’ve landed on a niche, research its potential for profitability. Social media is a great tool gauge the amount of interest behind your designs. Try to find active communities among these platforms:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Pinterest

Reddit

Curious about digging deeper into the above sites to discover niches that already exist? Learn more in our next chapter!